Category: Music

The Music Superman

Here’s some more Adventures of Superman music. The previous example is from season 2, and this is from the first season. The music wasn’t actually written for the series, it was composed for low-budget “Poverty Row” studios in the late 40’s, re-recorded overseas to avoid the musician’s union, and later made available on transcription disks for use in TV shows. Some of it is believed to have been the work of famed film composer Miklos Rozsa. There’s a strong “Rite of Spring” component to this piece.

The first season of TAOS is a lot grittier than subsequent seasons. One of the best early episodes is “Crime Wave.” Watch Superman punch through a concrete wall, then turn around and punch bad guys in the jaw, and remember that this was a kid’s TV show.

Music Appreciated

To fully appreciate certain things it is often essential that they be considered in context, but sometimes taking a thing out of context is equally valuable. Here is a 10-minute music selection, removed from its source, that has been heard countless times by millions of people.

At 8:55 you will hear something truly super. Keep in mind that in its day this was considered hack work, composed for Hollywood’s Poverty Row studios.

Ripping Station

Well, the little TEAC CD-ROM reader has met its match in a particular CD-R disc. After a certain point it got into trouble, gave up and popped the lid open. But everything up to that track was good, and having only one disc in the retry pile is certainly a lot better than it had been.

Ripping

Those headphones are the Pioneer SE-A1000. It’s one of those items that Amazon sometimes has in stock, other times it’s “fulfilled by Amazon” or some other seller. I paid $59 for my pair, and I recommend them highly for those with a large hat size, like myself, and where a very long cord is needed, which is not what I need them for at the moment. The SE-A1000 is excellent for very critical listening. The sibilance in the vocals of certain less-than-perfect recordings can sometimes be over-emphasized, but that same quality makes the SE-A1000 perfect if you’re comparing an MP3 copy to the original, or trying to distinguish between a CD data error and a splice in the master tape of a recording.